Belhaven

The party quickly turned the tide of battle, sending Redthorn fleeing back to the Iron Keep. They gathered up some additional forces, scouted the defenses, and made a plan to head in as a covert operations squad while the Circle got distracted by a full-scale assault from the other side of the Keep. Thankfully, the plan succeeded, and they began their assault.

The party, having secured the aid of the Woodsinger elf tribe, descended into the Harkenwold. In the small town of Dardun, they encountered a band of Iron Circle mercenaries lecturing the townsfolk on the dangers of rebellion, citing the example of a captured rebel cleric at hand. the party rescued the cleric (Thale Leafcrest), who told them that he had been trying to kindle the fires of revolution in the Harkenwold.

The party then began arrangements to draw out Nazir Redthorn, leader of the Iron Circle, and their plans largely succeeded. Dardun became the site of the first rousting of the Circle, culminating in the arrival of Redthorn, who called out the party by name.

The Aegis returned to Sir Malindros and discovered that the lady love for whom he made a deal with the Prince of Hearts was none other than Valyra Moonshadow, kin to the Ithronost twins. Sir Malindros took them to the fey crossing at the ley line nexus and sent them back to the World.

En route to Hammerfast, the Aegis decided to check in on their secondary goal: removing the Iron Circle from the Harkenwold. They determined that the Iron Keep in Harken proper contained perhaps a hundered soldiers and dozens of subservient devils, and that the threat of a full scale rebellion would be enough to convince their leader, Nazin Redthorn, to take his forces to the field and command them personally. The party decided to try to whip the people of the Harkenwold into rebellion.

On the way there, they met Eriyel of the Woodsinger Elves, who pledged fifty elven bows to the cause in exchange for a service rendered by the Aegis. The party quickly went about removing the skeletal mage Yisarn from the nearby ruins of the eladrin outpost Dal Nystierre and ending his plans to decimate the elves.

The Aegis decided to talk tot he nearby gnome tunnel-village to try to find out more about these giant hunters. En route, they enraged a pack of thunderhoof boars and began a rapid chase down the hill to try to escape thundery hoofy death. The gnomes told them they were dealing with a pack of firbolgs who were hunting outside their normal territory (markedly abnormal for the firbolgs). The Aegis found a nearby encampment of hunters and dispatched them, reserving one firbolg for questioning.

As it turns out, the firbolgs had been enchanted to do the will of a new mistress, the Witch of the Shadowed Heart. The Witch, thought by some to be no more than a faerie story, held sway over the power of tormented love, and sought the ley line nexus at the heart of Sir Malindros’ keep. Worse, if killed, she would simply return unless someone else took upon herself the burden of becoming the next Witch.

So naturally the Aegis rolled up and jacked her and all her homies. I’m not sure why this paragraph is written so informally but you’ll just have to deal with it. After beating her and her firbolgs down, Theadora ate the Witch’s heart and became the new Witch of the Shadowed Heart. This probably hasn’t helped her rep with the dwarves any.

The party set off in pursuit of Calastryx. Before they left, Renard agreed to enter the service of Oligarch Davian II as one of his knights. On the way to the mountains to pass over into the Nentir Vale, they ran into a village which had been used by the dragon like a highway rest stop. There they met a family of wandering tieflings who had stopped to aid the villagers. The daughter of the family, Muse, read the fortunes of most of the party, predicting things which seemed mostly true and somewhat magical.

The party left the next morning, but soon realized that they had gotten lost. Some quick thinking and keen observation revealed that they were in the Feywild. After a brief discussion with some harried gnomes, the party encountered a rather zealous patrol of watchmen. They captured the watchmen and went to see their master, Sir Malindros.

Sir Malindros agreed to send the party back home, but revealed that a contract with the Prince of Hearts prevented him from performing any service without receiving something in return first. He asked the Silver Aegis to investigate the giant hunters which had harried the gnomes for so long.

…eventually culminating in the discovery that their quarry managed to escape them, but left behind a note explaining that the cult believed it had been set up. They turned the captured cultists over to the guard and went to claim their reward. Lord Tuanek was displeased by their discoveries but pleased with their success.

They left for Belhaven soon thereafter, accompanied by Barus Stonehand and his fellow travelers from the northern city of Hammerfast. Barus had come to the city in the hopes of convincing the champions of the tournament to come investigate recent fiery eruptions from Forgepeak in the nearby Dawnforge Mountains. Barus feared that the three headed dragon Calastryx might be waking from the spell that held it in slumber.

In the city, the party delivered the twins to their family and discovered that Caladir Emethen wished audience with them. Prepared for the worst, they agreed to meet with him. Instead of the confrontation they expected, he broke down and told them the truth: he had been sent on a mission of a mercy killing from the future.

It seems that at some point in the Dawn War Pelor became infected by an entity from the Far Realm. The future Pelor (hereafter referred to as the Tyrant Sun) was unable to withstand the pressures put upon him by this, and in his aspect as the Sun of the World, burst from his normal bonds and burned the World to a cinder. Filled with shame and regret, he decided the best course of action would be to use his power as the Keeper of Time to attempt to prevent this event. He made a deal with Asmodeus, since Asmodeus was the only known non-demon to have killed a god, and sent Caladir back in time along with Araonna Loathari and some Asmodean forces. The infiltration of the Church, the sabotage to political and mercantile structures, and the general chaos surrounding Belhaven are all part of the greater plan to disrupt Pelor’s influence and kill him before his infection can grow any further.

Taken aback by this frankly unbelievable news, the party decided to continue to investigate while Emethen stood as their inside man. For now, though, there was a tournament to attend.

The party arrived near Sarubel in time to rescue Bulwark, Aric Lyonne, and a razorclaw shifter who’d been sent to the Knights of the Turning Wheel. They had been attacked while on patrol by a band of Bloodspear Orcs who seemed to be journeying south. Bulwark escorted the party to Thanduven Keep to recuperate and rest, noting that on the morrow the new merchants’ guild leader wished to speak with them.

While walking through town the next morning, the party witnessed a gruesome accident as a worked fell from a ladder while working on a house. However, quick investigation revealed this to be no accident. The merchant guild master, Lord Tuanek from House Kaivan came quickly and appointed the party to investigate the matter.

Investigation quickly turned hostile, though, when they realized that the foreman of the site was trying to stall and delay their investigation to keep the party from going inside the house. He soon revealed his form as that of a wereserpent and had his crew attack. Further investigation revealed that the house hid a tunnel, which appeared to lead through a series of temple chambers devoted to Zehir. The party made their way through as much of the temple as possible…

The party gradually made their way out of the Vein Maze, defeating vampires, zombies, and creatures made of pure madness along the way. They made their way to Yazadoun’s Folly, a campsite for adventurers seeking fortune within the ruins of Vor Kragal. They spent the night there only to find that Derreth and Lyrabel had fallen comatose. Idria, a deva at the campsite, examined them and determined that some ill had befallen Derreth and passed into Lyrabel via their connection as twins within a magical bloodline.

On the road, they responded to what seemed to be an emergency involving some ogres, but which turned out to be a cunning ambush set by an eladrin, the ogres he had cowed into service, and his pet owlbear.

There was some other stuff involving riding along the trade road and realizing there were no eastbound caravans, but who cares about that? OWLBEAR. Hell yes.

Having easily dispatched the Phantom Brigade knights, the party headed to the roof to combat the perytons and rescue Malachi. After their victory, they debated what to do with the remaining peyton egg, ultimately deciding to eat it rather than allow it to fall into the wrong hands. Back at the village a feast was held in their honor including a rather gamey peryton omelette.

They finally found the pyramid in a cave nestled within the mountains. The pyramid was wrapped in a ward of hellfire and seemed to link to other locations, assumed to be other building sites for the pyramids. A guardian made of chains blocked their way out and announced their impending doom in the voice of Araonna Loathari, who remotely piloted the guardian. The party undid the wards and stepped through the pyramid’s gate to an unknown location.

That unknown location proved to be the Vein Maze of House Kahlir in Vor Kragal. Theadora‘s recent studies of that city proved useful as she disclosed to the party that they were in a horrible maze designed by a noble house of vampire tieflings for the exsanguination of thousands of prisoners of war. Renard’s Spirit of Vice helped point them to the way out and also indicated that the terrifyingly powerful Blood King of House Kahlir dwelt deep within the maze. The party began the trek out of the maze, encountering some particularly nasty vampiric mists and the husks of the Arkhosian victims of Kahlir’s depredations.